Gligic Continues Canada’s Web Success

Jason Logan

Jason Logan

Bits
Before we get to actual golf, how about that should-we-stay-or-should-we-go discussion among Phil Mickelson, Paul Casey and rules official Mark Russell Sunday night? Try as he might, Mickelson couldn’t convince Casey to keep playing in the dark and the look of annoyance on Phil’s face when the horn blew was positively priceless ×× Don’t blame Mickelson, though. To paraphrase George Costanza, I’d put my face in someone’s soup and blow if it meant not having to come back the next morning to finish ×× No fault of Casey’s either. He’s three shots down yes, but stranger things have happened at Pebble Beach and there is a lot on the line for him. He was fully within his right to do what he did ×× Speaking of strange things at Pebble Beach, not many are stranger than what happened to Canadian Jim Nelford, who famously lost the 1984 clambake when Hale Irwin’s horribly hooked drive on 18 hit a rock a ways down the seaside cliff and somehow (with draw spin) ricocheted right and back into the fairway, allowing him to make birdie on the par 5 to tie Nelford and then win in a playoff. Nelford was on Golf Channel’s Morning Drive to discuss that bit of bad luck and the boating accident that nearly took his life. It’s a wonderful interview.

Bites
Back to Casey-Mickelson: Casey’s pro-am team (his partner is Don Colleran, a FedEx executive VP) had a one-shot lead with two holes to play when that chat took place. Imagine they had continued and somehow lost? “How’d you throw away that pro-am, Donnie?” “Ah you know, Phil Mickelson convinced my pro to play golf in the dark” ×× By the way, I love that Mickelson is going to win at Pebble Beach, which in four months will host the U.S. Open, a tournament where Lefty has had pocket aces busted a number of times. If that storyline wasn’t juicy enough already… ×× Most of the way through Keith Cutten’s book, The Evolution of Golf Course Design, and I’ve enjoyed it immensely. It’s funny, I remember asking myself last fall why, with the move back towards angles and width and fast and firm, did golf course design ever get away from that? Cutten’s book answers that query and more. Wonderful photography too ×× The PGA of Canada made it official last week: Cabot Links will once again host the national final of the RBC Scramble. The Cape Breton resort has been a huge draw for the event. Question for you: After Cabot, what other course/resort/destination in Canada would most entice you to sign up for this event?

Barbs
Michael Gligic’s Web.com Tour victory in Panama Sunday marked the fourth straight season — and fifth of the last six years — that a Canadian has won on the AAA circuit. Checking in on the Canadian win total on that tour, Gligic became the 19th Canuck to join the club. He joined Jerry Anderson, Rick Todd (2), Glen Hnatiuk (4), Ahmad Bateman, Ian Leggatt, Richard Zokol, David Morland IV (2), David Hearn, Jon Mills (2), Jim Rutledge, Bryan DeCorso, Chris Baryla, Adam Hadwin (2), Roger Sloan, Brad Fritsch, Mackenzie Hughes, Ben Silverman and Adam Svensson. That’s 26 victories since the circuit was formed as the Ben Hogan Tour in 1990. (Stephen Ames won in 1991, but that was long before he made Canada his residence or became a citizen.) Of those 26 wins, nine came in events outside the United States. Those would be Zokol, Hearn, Mills and Sloan in Canada; Rutledge in New Zealand, Hadwin in Chile, Fritsch in Colombia, Svensson in the Bahamas and, of course, Gligic in Panama. (As another aside, there have been only 11 Web.com Tour events played in Canada and four were won by Canadians. Amazing.) All told, that’s a pretty successful haul for Canadians over the years. Gligic, who began Sunday in a tie for seventh and posted a final-round 65 to score the come-from-behind victory, is now second on the Web Tour’s newly constructed points list through four events. Much like Svensson last year, he’s put himself in the driver’s seat to earn a PGA Tour card at year’s end (top 25 players) and remember that Gligic began the season with just eight guaranteed starts after faltering late in the final round of Q-School. Excellent stuff from a man who turned pro after high school and has experienced a number of ups and downs playing for pay over a dozen years.

Obscure thought of the week: Have you ever wondered how it’s possible for your family of (insert number of family members here) to produce so much recycling in one week?